Conroy ready to run into treasurer's office

State Rep. Tom Conroy, a Democratic candidate for state treasurer, makes a point during an editorial board meeting at the Sentinel & Enterprise offices on Friday.
SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE/CHRIS CAMIRE

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FITCHBURG -- Tom Conroy is emphasizing his experience with finance, both in the private sector and as a state representative, in his campaign for state treasurer.

"I'm ready to do this job on day one. I don't know that the other folks in this race have that same level of expertise, that same breadth of knowledge," said Conroy, 52, of Wayland. On Friday he sat down with Sentinel & Enterprise staff to talk about his campaign.

Conroy spent 16 years as a financial consultant to businesses and nonprofits. He also ran a refugee program for the State Department for a decade and worked for two Democratic U.S. Senators. Since 2007, he has represented the 13th Middlesex District as a Democrat.

Conroy has a master's degree in international economics from Johns Hopkins and an MBA in finance from Boston University. He said voters will like his progressive and social-justice values, his financial background and his accomplishments as a legislator. He takes credit for crafting legislation that helped bring up the state's credit rating, which has saved the state tens of millions over the past four years when borrowing money.

He said a lot of people don't understand what the treasurer does.

"I look at this office as more expansive," said Conroy. "It's more than just financial mechanics."

Massachusetts owes its public employees $80 billion in unfunded pensions and health-care benefits and Conroy said cutting those benefits is out of the question.

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He said the state made a promise to those public employees and they in turn made their plans around that agreement.

"We need to honor that covenant," said Conroy. "They made decisions to stay in public service, as opposed to going to the private sector." His solution is to put money into the pension system from sources other than taxes, such as money from settlements the attorney general receives and from the 2012 tobacco settlement, which was originally intended for smoking cessation programs.

Conroy said right now the state is paying pension money out as soon as it comes in. He said getting more money into the pension system right away will allow them to invest it wisely and see the money grow by 8 percent a year.

He also supports using a few percent of that money to invest in Massachusetts companies to help grow the economy. When asked if that will limit the interest generated he said he understands why it could, but doesn't think enough of it is being earmarked to make a difference.

"It's a small amount of the money out of the pension fund," he said. "The pension fund is $60.7 billion at the end of the last quarter. ... The amount of money out of that $60 billion that is now currently allowed to be allocated in this way is $50 million. I'd like to bring it up to $100 million." He said the benefit to Massachusetts businesses will be much greater.

Conroy said the state doesn't generate enough energy and has high energy costs. He'd like to see tax breaks and subsidies shift away from helping oil and coal companies and instead see more go toward renewable energies.

"I like wind, I like solar, I'm a believer in hydro," he said. Conroy said hydro electricity has brought their power costs down to 2.7 cents per kilowatt hour while the rest of the state pays around 13 cents per kilowatt hour.

However, he's also cautious about a repeat of Evergreen Solar, the solar-panel manufacturing company that received $50 million in aid from the state but then moved to China.

"I think there was a lesson learned," said Conroy. "I don't think there were enough clawbacks in the contract, I don't think there were enough protections and foresight into what was going on in that industry." He added that the Federal Trade Commission could have done more to intervene when China subsidized the company.

Conroy said he has consistently voted against allowing casinos into the state and is concerned that they will hurt the state economy. As treasurer, he would be in charge of the state lottery, and he said the casinos will leech away about 20 to 25 percent of state revenue from lottery tickets.

He also wants to see the state bring down what it pays in health care by shifting more costs away from the state and to the federal government and private insurers.

Follow Michael Hartwell at facebook.com/ michaelhartwell or on Twitter or Tout @Sehartwell.

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